Walt Whitman

Musicality
Whitman was inspired by opera.
He portrays himself as a bard, singing for the common people.
Onomatopoeia
«Beat! Beat! Drums!»: «Throughout the poem, he not only repeats, 'Beat! Beat! Drums! – Blow! Bugles! Blow!' but he uses the words in the stanzas that incorporate some kind of sound. He uses words like 'burst, ' 'pound, ' 'rumble, ' 'rattle, ' and 'thump.' I can associate sounds with each of these words. I can hear the drums drumming and the bugles blowing» (Patterson 9/17/96).
«One example of this can be seen in 'Song of the Banner at Daybreak' when the flag expresses its voice by 'Flapping, flapping, flapping, flapping…'» (Daugherty 9/19/96).
Oratory
Whitman lived at a time of great orators, such as Daniel Webster.
He may have been influenced by grass-roots reformers' oratory (Reynolds).
Parallels
Definition: variations on a theme, often linked by anaphora (the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of lines).
«Song of Myself»: «Have you reckoned a thousand acres much? have you reckoned the earth much? Have you…»
«Crossing Brooklyn Ferry»: «I see… I see… I see…»
See Ecclesiastes 3:2 – …: «A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted…»
Persona
«'Persona, ' as defined by A Handbook to Literature, is a mask created by an author and through which a narrative is told. Intrinsic in the concept of persona is that the author's own views are masked by the implied author through which he/she speaks (385). Another interpretation of 'persona, ' the Jungian view, is that persona is a set of attitudes adopted by an individual to fit himself for the social roles he sees as his (Simpson 598)…. Both of these explanations of persona are applicable to Whitman's works» (Hundley 1).
Punctuation
«Section 9 of «Passage to India» includes 29 lines. Twenty-five of these lines end either in a question or exclamation mark. The effect of this punctuation is that Whitman depicts the deep emotion that he pours into his writing» (Lasher 9/17/96).
Whitman «uses exclamation points frequently, creating extra emphasis on lines. The beautiful things in life become magnificent, and sad become tragic» (Minis 9/17/96).
Whitman believed that poetry should be spoken, not written, and this basic criterion governed the concept and form of his poetry. He used repetition and reiterative devices (as, for example, in «Out of the Cradle Endlessly rocking,» the lines «Loud! Loud! Loud!» and «Blow! Blow! Blow!») He also employed elements of the opera (the aria and the recitative) in his poems.
He also was a master of exuberant phrases and images: «The beautiful uncut hair of graves» («Song of Myself,» section 6) is extraordinarily descriptive. Conversely, another description of the grass in the same section of the same poem, where it is described as «the handkerchief of the Lord,» is trivial.
Whitman brought vitality and picturesqueness to his descriptions of the physical world. He was particularly sensitive to sounds and described them with acute awareness. His view of the world was dominated by its change and fluidity, and this accounts for his frequent use of «ing» forms, either present participle or gerund.
Whitman’s language is full of his eccentricities: he used the word «presidential» for presidency, «pave» for pavement, and he spelled Canada with a K.
«Leaves of grass» contains archaic expressions – for example, betimes, betwixt, methinks, haply, and list (for listen). Whitman also employs many colloquial expressions and technical and commercial terms. Words from foreign languages add color and variety to his style.